MBTI at work

[cellio]

Not long ago someone at my company listed his Meyers-Briggs type on his wiki page. And then someone else did, and, well, once three people do it it's a movement, so while I was on vacation someone created a page listing people by type (when known).

Of 35 people currently listed, 8 are INTJs -- seven software developers (including one of my favorite colleagues) and a hard-core designer. Yeah, these are my people. :-) According to Wikipedia, INTJs are about 2% of the general (US) population.

Granted, most of these types are being obtained by test toys found on the internet, but I don't imagine that would bias the results in a particular way, especially as people are using different tests. A few people have had more real tests in the past.

(Next-biggest group is ISTJ at 6, but that's a big group in the general population so not surprising. Ours apparently took some flack for alphabetizing the names within each section of the page; it's an ISTJ thing to do, apparently. :-) )

I just noticed something odd in the groupings. There are 16 types, grouped into four groups: NT, NF, SJ, and SP. Given the first two, I expected the other two to be ST and SF, but they're not. (That is, the first two suggested the pattern of "middle letters dominate".) I wonder what that means. (The I/E dimension gets no primary grouping at all?)

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, it goes like this:

I/E is irrelevant as a major grouping, all that letter means is whether you conceal your true nature (I) or not (E). If you are iNtuitive, then your primary method of decision is from the inside, based on either your Thoughts or your Feelings. If you are Sensing, then your primary method of decision is from the outside, based on either Judging or Perceiving. Or to put it another way, for Ns the T/F is dominant over the J/P and for Ss the J/P is dominant over the T/F.

[cellio]

Yeah, I/E is about where you draw your strength from verses direct behavior. I does not necessarily mean shy and E does not necessarily mean show-off, for instance. As an introvert, I place a lot of value on "me time" -- time to reflect, write, think, analyze, etc. I'm very introspective, and if I don't get a chance to "discharge" that every day I get fidgetty and unhappy.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

That sounds more like an N thing rather than an I thing. I definitely remember from whatever source I read it from that E means your appearance and inner self are the same, but I means that they're opposite, I think on the J/P axis.

Of course, I suspsect there are several possible interpretations.